About this mod

Live Free attempts to make Morrowind's slave system as useful as possible without putting the burden on the player to sift through menus and micromanage your companions. You can now buy or steal any slaves you come across, and they have advanced AI to control their behavior as companions.

Permissions and credits

Author's instructions

I have to thank Grumpy and Zerocyde for their work. This mod's AI is based off of their scripts. I'm also going to thank Fliggerty, as his original slave mod was very nice.

You may use any resources from this mod as you wish, but with the following two restrictions:• You must give me credit proportional to the final work.• If you use any resources from this mod, your mod must also be free for modders to use. We can always use more free resources.

File credits

﻿ I have to thank Grumpy and Zerocyde for their work. This mod's AI is based off of their scripts. I'm also going to thank Fliggerty, as his original slave mod was very nice.

a mod by

I forgot to mention two things in the readme: first, you need Tribunal to use this mod; second, you can't have more than three slaves actively following you around. This was done for both balance and scripting reasons, as having more than three followers screwed with the AI.

Also, the mod iscompatible with Brother Juniper's Twin Lamps. I recommend using the two together.

I have always felt that Morrowind's slavery system was an area of the game that never clicked into place. Whether you play as a slaver or an abolitionist, you run into the system's limits in unnatural and inconsistent places. Some slaves can never be freed, and others are practically holding the keys to their own escape. There are a total of four slave markets—in Tel Aruhn, Sadrith Mora, Suran, and Molag Mar—but only one of these actually sells slaves. Once you do buy slaves, you quickly learn that they don't listen to anything you tell them to do. More accurately, there is nothing you can tell them to do.

To resolve all of these problems, Live Free focuses on two main points:

Every slave at every slave market can be bought. If you want a slave without coughing up money, you can take any slave whose bracer you have the key to. You can also sell slaves at the slave markets for a reduced price.

The slaves that you can buy all have an all-new companion AI, based on Grumpy's work. The AI is designed to allow effective party-based movement and combat.

Specifics are given below.

Acquiring Slaves

Buying slaves is handled exactly as it was in vanilla; you just talk to the slavemaster and specify which one you would like to purchase. The price of each slave depends on his or her race. Argonians and Khajiit are worth the least, at 5000 drakes, and the two Altmer slaves are worth the most, at 10,000 drakes. You can also sell your slaves to the merchants in slave markets. The slavemaster will give you 2500 drakes for each, allowing you to turn a nice profit from "repossessing" the slaves you find during your adventures

If you don't want to buy a slave, you can always steal them. If you have the key to any slave's bracers, you now have the option of taking him or her as your own. The Skeleton Key will now work as the key for any slave, so a master thief is able to steal (or free) as many slaves as there are in-game.

AI

The first time you buy or steal a slave, you are presented with an option to modify all of their attributes. If certain attributes are high enough, the attribute menu will be followed by two "proficiency" menus, where you can select the slaves' weapon and magic proficiencies. A governing attribute needs to be above 50 for the slave to be proficient with a weapon or magic school. For instance, having Strength above 50 will give you the options for prioritizing Axe, Blunt Weapon, and Long Blade; having Willpower above 50 will allow you to decide between Alteration, Destruction, Mysticism, and Restoration. You get to choose one weapon proficiency and one magic proficiency for each slave, and you cannot change them later.

Based on their magic proficiencies and attributes, slaves receive a selection of appropriate spells. Restoration-focused slaves will have options to heal you and fortify your attributes, while Conjuration-focused characters generally have summoning spells and a Bound Weapon spell (based on their weapon proficiency). Slaves will now use their spell selection intelligently; for instance, an illusionist will cast a Chameleon spell on you as you sneak, and a "clerical" mage will try to heal you (and him/herself) and cure you of diseases and poisons. You can see all of the spells your slaves possess by using the "Read me your spellbook" option in dialogue.

In addition to effective use of magic, your slaves have many new features to make them useful allies rather than a permanent escort quest. The first of this is the Travel menu, inspired by Antares' work. This allows you to send one or more slaves to any major city on Vvardenfell (as well as to Mournhold or to your stronghold). They appear in that location the next day.

In terms of combat effectiveness, both mages and non-mages are significantly improved. A slave will prefer to use his proficient weapon type, followed by the others in order of the slave's governing Attributes. If a slave is proficient in Marksman and has Strength of 70, an Agility of 56, an Endurance of 45, and a Speed of 20, his weapon selection will happen in the following order:

Marksmanship weapons

Blunt weapons/Long blades/Axes

Spears

Short blades/hand-to-hand

Between weapons in the same category, a slave will choose the better weapon of the options at hand. A slave's armor choice is selected based on armor skills' governing Attributes: Endurance for medium and heavy armor, Agility for light armor, and Speed for unarmored. Slaves will tend to position themselves in the most appropriate location for their weapon type—archers, for example, will retreat to firing distance.

It isn't just combat that has been improved, however. Every other day, a stationary slave (one not following you) will have a slim chance to find class-specific items, based on Luck and appropriate skills. Slaves with high Intelligence, Willpower, or Personality may find magic items: weak potions, scrolls, or soulgems, for instance. Slaves with high Agility might find lockpicks or probes. Even slaves with low stats can find objects, ranging from small amounts of gold to alchemy ingredients.

There are more AI-related features, but nothing that you have to manage.

Installation and Compatibility

Installing the mod is easy. If you want to install it manually, just put the ESP file in your "Data Files" folder and check the corresponding box in your Morrowind launcher. You could also use the Nexus Mod Manager to install it automatically.

Live Free requires Morrowind and Tribunal. You don't need MWSE, MGE, MWE, or any other such script extenders. The mod is compatible with anything that doesn't change the three unused slave traders (it does not affect Savile Imayn) or Yakov. I only changed Yakov because he didn't actually have the slave script attached to him. Mods that change the slave script will also conflict with Live Free, as will mods that change the "go free" dialogue. Anything that changes the slaves themselves should be completely fine.

Credits and Permissions

I have to thank Grumpy and Zerocyde for their work. This mod's AI is based off of their scripts. I'malso going to thank Fliggerty, as his original slave mod was very nice.

You may use any resources from this mod as you wish, but with the following two restrictions:

You must give me credit proportional to the final work.

If you use any resources from this mod, your mod must also be free for modders to use. We can always use more free resources.